Gossip Goblin, the YouTuber Zack London, has announced that pop star Grimes and fellow YouTuber Mike Majlak will appear in his AI-generated feature Gods Don't Give Gifts. The casting is being revealed through a large Times Square ad campaign that began on 3 November. Grimes' on-screen image is AI-generated to resemble her, but she supplies a real voice performance. The release was originally set for 30 October.
“I made these films with AI, which some people find ironic. But using a medium to interrogate that medium is one of the oldest moves in art; I may just be early to do it with AI.”
Zack London (Gossip Goblin), creator and director, as quoted by Netinfluencer · netinfluencer.com ↗
Getting her into the film took some work. The team mashed photos onto an existing character design and had to ask the makers of the underlying models to lift built-in blocks on generating a public figure's likeness. Roughly 30 to 35 people are credited on the film, and a behind-the-scenes documentary is planned with the composer, voice actors and a Foley artist. IndieWire frames the visuals as work that would normally need a team of thousands and millions of dollars.
The film is an R-rated anthology of four stories set on a planet where consciousness has been commoditized. It reaches US cinemas on 4 December, on fewer than 1,000 screens, after being moved from 30 October to sit closer to awards season. It is described as the first AI film to receive an official MPA rating, and the plan is to enter it for Best Animated Feature, with for-your-consideration screenings already under way and a digital Oscar campaign due at the end of November. A fan contest offers $15,000 to the best AI short set in its universe, and entries close on 15 December. London says he is aware of the controversy and was not trying to dodge the question of what AI means for the art.
A frame from the film's trailer showing its AI-generated sci-fi imagery
Image: Futurism
Edward Saatchi of Fable, the film's co-producer, calls it animation's Toy Story moment for this generation and says it deserves a nomination. London accepts the controversy and calls the film a big, unproven hypothesis, but says it would be disingenuous to wave it off as only an AI movie. Futurism was less taken, describing the trailer as familiar sci-fi imagery and empty calories.
About Gods Don't Give Gifts
Gods Don't Give Gifts is an R-rated, AI-generated animated sci-fi anthology of four stories, written and directed by YouTuber Gossip Goblin, whose real name is Zack London, and co-produced with Fable.
The feature and its plan for a US theatrical run were announced on 22 July 2026, the day London released a free 27-minute preview short, Pomegranate, when his channel had 1.4 million subscribers. A 15-second teaser came first, and on 6 October the full trailer went up on his channel; the film became the first AI film to receive an MPA rating, R. It was first set for 30 October, but on 6 October Fable moved it to 4 December to sit closer to Oscar season, with a Best Animated Feature submission planned.
The backers point to YouTube-born hits as precedent. Markiplier's Iron Lung grossed about $50 million worldwide, and Kane Parsons' Backrooms is cited at $401 million. London's audience is about four million, and the trailer has drawn some 16 million views. The Academy's rules say AI tools neither help nor harm a film's chances, and the last R-rated film nominated for Best Animated Feature was Anomalisa in 2015. Whether the earlier hits translate is unclear: a recent Chinese AI film suggests that success may not carry over.
Promotional image for the film and its December Oscar-season release
Image: Netinfluencer
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